AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

PRESS RELEASE 357

JULIA GILLARD AND MINISTRY FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION:

INSTITUTIONALISED HYPOCRISY

Julia Gillard, the Minister for Social Inclusion, talks about ‘social inclusion’ and the elimination of unfairness at the same time as she

  • is undermining the social cohesion of Australian society by funding the division of children into sectarian educational institutions;
  • is attempting through league tables to shame public education’s disadvantaged who are victims of five decades of inequity in funding;

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As Minister for Social Inclusion, Julia Gillard, launched the Australian Government’s national statement on social inclusion, A Stronger, Fairer Australia on 28 January 2010. See http://www.socialinclusion.gov.au

Gillard defined Social Inclusion as ensuring no Australian is left behind by giving all the opportunities, resources, capabilities and responsibilities to learn, work, connect with others and have a say in community life.

 

So far, so good. Then, in a speech to the conference, Ms Gillard set herself and the Rudd government up to fail. She said that at the start of a new decade the test of this work is the progress they have made together by its close. She claimed that the agenda is about embedding a commitment to fairness in everything that the Government does. She claims that the statement sets out a new approach to break down the barriers that stand between the most disadvantaged Australians and participation. She admits that, despite a strong economy in recent years, disadvantage still prevents many Australians from getting a fair go.

Gillard also indicated awareness of the problems caused by inequalities, and claimed that the Government is determined to address disadvantage, which costs the entire nation in lower productivity, chronic health problems, welfare dependence and fractured communities. Then she made the fundamental error. The Rudd Government’s social inclusion strategy will form partnerships between the people in government, the not-for-profit sector and businesses that have the greatest experience in addressing disadvantage.

The public education system has been the mainspring of social cohesion and the fundamental lynch pin in our democratic society to date. It has been able to do this because it has been genuinely public in purpose, outcome, access, ownership, control, accountability and provision. The Rudd government is continuing to undermine this basic institution by yoking it unequally with the private religious and business sector, and imposing a market ideology upon it. It is being treated as the mere plaything of parental choice. This is epitomized in a website containing limited information on literacy and numeracy designed to compare schools and shame disadvantage.

In this fashion our governments have reduced an enlightened education, the provision of the accumulation of the inherited wisdom of our society and the power to learn and think for ourselves, to a commodity and plaything of the market. It is to credit of our public education system that its graduates and supporters can think their away around the weasel words of Gillard and Rudd.

Gillard has not even had the decency to place the accurate knowledge of funding figures and resources available to the private religious institutions on her MySchool website. It is left to public school supporters and independent investigators to reveal the scandalous over funding of these institutions.

Meanwhile, if the Rudd government is forming partnerships with the private religious sector which promotes sectarian education what is the value of her platitudes about ‘social inclusion’?

Genuine Democratic governments should deal in realities, rather than topsy-turvy rhetoric; action not words.

 

 

 

DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION AND STOP STATE AID TO PRIVATE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.

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